Page 84 of Let Me Say It Again

He smiled in response, pulling my lower lip away from my upper one, so I gladly parted them for him, a light breath escaping. It was an unsteady one, but I wasn’t sure why because we’d kissed before. We’d done a lot of things before.

Yet with him, things always felt like the first time. They felt exciting and new. He made me feel like I was floating on a cloud at times like this. Maybe it was true what they said—to be cautious of billionaires because they knew how to make a woman feel like a million bucks.

Right before they broke their heart and stomped on the pieces so they were impossible to put back together.

No. I ignored the negative thoughts in my head, trying my best to silence them.

Red wasn’t like that. He was different.

I leaned in more and closed my eyes, so ready for our lips to touch so I could taste him.

Suddenly, a phone rang. More specifically, mine. It was my signature ringtone that made me sure.

I looked to the door. It was in my purse, and my instincts told meget up and run. This is your chance to get away. To keep your shit together before you get in too deep.But another part of me acknowledged that my feet suddenly felt like they were weighed down with sandbags. I couldn’t seem to drag myself away from the table.

Finally, Red spoke, his warm breath hitting my lips with the close proximity we were in to each other. “You can get that if you want.”

My gaze shot to him. Should I? Would I? Could I? My mind was spinning until my instincts finally won out. “Yeah, okay. Thanks. It could be an emergency,” I said lamely and backed up.

Red nodded, his expression stoic. He was pissed.

Want to know a secret, though?

So.

Was.

I.

Chapter Thirty-One

Jade

We were T-minustwenty-six hours from the charity bachelor auction, and I’d spent all day with the other women on the planning committee at the venue getting everything set up. Apparently, when it was for charity, venues allowed parties to call the shots. In this case, occupying the ballroom in advance of the big event.

Five hundred of New York’s richest, most elite would be showing up to drink, eat, and stare at, or in the case of a respectable number of women, bid on, men. I’d learned that ticket prices for the event were upwards of twelve-hundred dollars a head, so I had a feeling throwing money around to land a man wouldn’t be an issue. Deep pockets and all.

Meanwhile, I’d be hanging on Red’s arm like a good little fiancée and enjoying myself as much as I could. Sure, I’d been in his world for a hot second by now, but it would never cease to amaze me just how out of place I could feel when doing things like this. It was like I didn’t belong. Never mind, there was nolikeabout it. I didn’t. I was beginning to understand this girl from Queens would never not feel that way.

“What do you think about where I put the vase?” Sherrilyn asked, coming up beside me and tapping me on the shoulder while I continued to fold napkins into swans as directed about an hour ago. Good thing I actually knew what one of these looked like after Mitzy had them at the engagement party she’d thrown for me and Red. Not that it helped any, especially by making this a hell of a lot less physically painful on my hands. At this rate,my hands would cramp up before I ever finished folding five hundred of these bad boys.

My gaze followed her as she pointed to the vase in question. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure the thing qualified as a vase. It was gigantic and stood about three feet off the floor, decorated with giant feathers and some sort of greenery. It was a whole decor style that I just wasn’t getting, but that wasn’t what she’d asked me about. “It looks good.”

“Do you think it blocks the stage?”

At the right angle, it could block the Empire State Building. “Uhh, no. It’s good there.”

Sherrilyn wiped imaginary sweat from her brows. I’d swear, the woman did not break a sweat all day. I had no idea how she did it. Meanwhile, I was pretty sure I was starting to smell. The black cotton shirt I’d chosen to wear today proved to be the best thing (besides a tank top) that I could’ve worn because it hid all my sweat stains.

Out of the blue, she stopped and stared at me, angling her head to the side. “What are you doing there?”

“Folding swans,” I explained, hoping she wasn’t about to tell me that I was doing it wrong. If so, I might have to fling myself off the roof of the building. No way was I going to start over.

“Let me help,” she surprised me by saying and nudging me over.

Okay, I was going to say it—Sherrilyn really wasn’t all that bad. Would you believe me if I said I was actually starting to like her? Not just because she offered to help me from my swan-imposed misery, but because she had realcojones. Sherrilyn was fiercely devoted to the things that mattered to her most—her husband, her family, her community. She was actually quite a good person.

It struck me then that she was the kind of woman Red needed in his life. It was too bad he’d gotten stuck withme because of his rotten situation with Mark’s close-minded mentality about family men and business. I was so far from a Sherrilyn, I didn’t even know where to begin. I’d said it before, but I was nothing more than a broke ass bitch from Queens, who had only just learned where she came from, but still had no idea where she was going.

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